Latest on the Blackhawks, Penguins, Capitals and Bruins.
Penguins still shopping for a scoring winger.
Could the Penguins pursue Patrick Sharp?
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: Dave Molinari reports Penguins GM Jim Rutherford remains unconcerned over not acquiring a top-six winger during the recent NHL Draft. Rutherford said he will continue to shop via trade or perhaps free agency to address that need.
TRIBLIVE.COM: Rob Rossi also reports only Rutherford really knows the winger he wants. “Maybe that winger is Oshie, who remained with St. Louis as of Saturday,” write Rossi. “Or perhaps Toronto’s Phil Kessel is the true target. Truthfully, Rutherford’s winger of choice could be either of those players or Chicago’s Patrick Sharp or Calgary’s Jiri Hudler or Carolina’s Jeff Skinner or Edmonton’s Nail Yakupov.” Rossi notes all those players have been linked to the Penguins this year.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: My guess is Sharp, Skinner and Oshie are Rutherford’s primary targets. Given Kessel’s big contract, I doubt there’s a fit there. I also believe Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli intends to stick with Yakupov and assess his performance in 2015-16.
Blackhawks have no timetable for salary-dumping deals.
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Mark Lazerus reports Blackhawks GM Stan Bowman claims he has no timetable to make his expected salary-dumping deals. Their hope is they’ll have more leverage once teams strike out in the free-agent market. A source claims the ‘Hawks are willing to play the long game with Sharp, adding it’s possible (though unlikely) this saga could go on into training camp.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Bowman demonstrated his patience last year, waiting until almost the start of the regular season before trading Nick Leddy to the New York Islanders in a cost-cutting deal. However, I expect he’ll move more quickly on a Sharp trade, perhaps within the next two weeks after the UFA market is picked clean.
Updates on the Capitals and Bruins.
CSNWASHINGTON.COM: Chuck Gormley reports Capitals GM Brian MacLellan still believes the trade market, rather than free agency, is the best way this summer to upgrade his roster. Gormley lists Chicago’s Patrick Sharp, Vancouver’s Radim Vrbata and St. Louis’ T.J. Oshie as possible options.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: The Capitals lack a first-line right wing. Of these, Oshie could be the best fit, but the Blues will want a good player in return as they wish to shake up, not rebuild, their core. The Canucks could peddle Vrbata if they’re unable to shed defenseman Kevin Bieksa via trade. The Capitals and Blackhawks discussed a possible Sharp deal before the trade deadline. They might revisit those discussions this week.
TSN’s Darren Dreger recently reported the following via Twitter: “Any speculation of the Bruins potentially trading Tuukka Rask should stop. Don Sweeney says emphatically he’s not trading him. No surprise.”
You watch..the Oilers will put Yakopov with McDavid, and he’ll be a 50 goal scorer next year.
It seems most on here forget the reason Yak was picked first overall his draft year. I think this is a huge year for him.
Biggest change in Edmonton I bringing in people outside the Oiler family. A coach and GM who has no ties to the Oiler past, as glorious as those times were, those times have passed.
Not sure about Yak, but we do know he’s starting fresh. It’s all up to him, regardless of whether he players with McD or anyone else.
Funny how that works, Bowman and the Hawks probably the smartest team in the league have patience to wait for deals and according to some around here the Leafs are idiots for not running Dion and Phil out the door as soon as it opened….hmmm.
Yak had been the toast of rumours for a long time. Maybe he does reward Edmonton with a good season this year.
Patience is so important. IMO Boston panicked and did not get enough for Hamilton, if they had waited they may have got more. I can’t complain about the Lucic deal, Martin Jones is a good investment and Miller has been improving.
Bowman will get things done, so will Shanahan. ( or Dubas or Hunter )
The dynamic duo will likely get moved after July 01 when any and all applicable bonuses set up by Dave”no nuts” Nonis kicks in for both Phil and Dion
Bowman has the benefit of the doubt, since he’s getting fitted for his 3rd ring in 6 seasons. Leafs on the other hand, have assets that they believe they need to deal for pieces of their rebuild. The opportunity to move them for assets in this draft have past, now what do the Leafs get for Dion and Kessel?
Tronna and Chicago are at different ends of the hockey spectrum.
any way you look at it Don Sweeney was left with a mess. the salaries that were granted to Krejci ($7.25 million), Bergeron ($6.875 million), Lucic ($6 million), Marchand ($4.5 million)and a rapidly fading Chara ($6.917 million) ate up almost half the proected Cap and were probably the reason Chiarelli was let go (the return for Seguin and his resurgence in Dallas likely didn’t help). the lack of Caproom cost them Boychuk (much to the Islander’s delight, prevented the resigning of an very effective Inginla, cost them fan favorite Thornton and eventually necessitated the moving of Lucic.
if Boston had started moving players earlier (like Chicago)and Chiarelli had gotten a proper return then Sweeney might not have felt the need to blow things up and start over.
as for the Hamilton deal the Boston Herald reported that the Bruins had offered him $5 million a year and he turned it down, he wasn’t liked by his teammates and it was unanimous, supposedly he impacted the deal by saying he wouldn’t report to some of the teams which limited the return.
the rumors of an offer sheet were probably enough to convince Sweeney to move Hamilton at the draft that he went to the Oiler’s (Chiarelli’s new team)provincial rivals has to be a coincidence, doesn’t it?
That mess only brought a Stanley cup to Boston. Good reason to fire a guy I guess, Not.
Most if not all of the guys were already in the organization before Chiarelli
Chiarelli made the mistake of falling in like with his players, paying their futures based on past performance. Didn’t learn lessons from the guy in Foxboro.
As for Chara, Bruins need to cut down his minutes and reduce the impact of his fade.
Lesson from Foxboro is if you cheat, you will win!
I like that thinking. Screw PC by dealing Dougie to Calgary.
Still wish they had got more, maybe a prospect already in the system. Time will tell how this worked out but I like the theory you bring to the table.
for every negative; there is a positive
whenever kessel / phaneuf go…
worst case scenario, the leafs will get an EQUIVALENT of VERY GOOD PLAYER (picks+players+prospects) within 3 years, as well save $10 million + in salary space, at the absolute minimum.
When they trade the players is of no consequence, except for maximizing that reward and they won’t go for a bag of pucks.
Twice today victimized by time out requests from the site here..anybody else have this problem?
ya like 4 x
me <—dumbass
overall spec's site is 99.999999999999% uptime and you don't need to register
so quit complaining 😛
The timeout requests may be due to the amount of time it take your server to propogate the site updates. We will keep an eye out for any further issues if they continue or multiply. As an aside, “victimized” is a poor choice of words. It’s not like we did it on purpose.
Why not trade Rask Chara and whoever else you can get some value for. The window is now completely closed on this core group. Mismanagement since 2011cup is unrepairable at this point. Now the big problem is the people in charge seem to be over their heads which will make the rebuild that much harder
I don’t feel sorry for the Bruins. Not one bit. To me, you build around players like Sequin, Hamilton and Lucic. You do this because they they are young and unique. Let me explain. Seguin is an elite center due to his skill level. Lucic has a rare blend of size, physicality and skill. Hamilton is a bonafide Norris trophy contending defenseman. These players are almost never available in free agency and hard to draft and develop. They chose to trade them and now deal with the consequences. Their reign as an Eastern conference favorite is over. Ding dong the witch is dead!
Bruins still have a great core – better than most,2 or 3 additions via free agency or trades and they will be right in the mix as usual
Same here Joey!
I agree with Jeff Noel it brought them a Stanley cup and a finals appearance. Boston will still be fighting for a playoff spot for the next few years they won’t be terrible. Imagine the leafs won a cup in 2018 and made finals in 2019 and had to lose Rielly, Marner and Beriner in 2021 due to cap problems I’m pretty sure Leafs fans would say it was well worth it! Chicago could be in the same boat soon going to loose a couple core guys soon due to cap problems just like when the won the cup the first time with this core. When teams develop a lot of really good young players and make deep runs in the playoffs they want to be paid and unfortunately you have to dump them. The retuns tend to be draft picks, I find it funny before draft most people on these sites think first round picks are worth the best players in the league then a team like Boston has 3 first round picks in a row and now the picks are not good and the GM is Terrible
Just heard from source near Habs that Canadiens offered 16 M / 5 years to M. Frolik and J. Tlusty.
Tony,
Frolik is looking for well over four M per year . 16M for five years surely will not cut it .Don’t understanund your Tlusty inclusion .